3 technologies from SXSW worth government's time

By GCN Staff

Mar 14, 2013

Though critics might say that the South by Southwest festival in Austin has moved away from its indie/maker roots, there were still plenty of edgy technologies to see. NASA wowed SXSWers with its full size reproduction of the James Webb Space Telescope (pictured above), which became the site of the world's largest astronomy lesson -- a new Guinness World Record. You can look it up.

Among the music, film and games, three big tech trends emerged from the 5-day SXSW Interactive conference: 3D printing, big data and gesture control. Below is a sampling of the buzz surrounding these technologies.